Plants growing on their superincumbent Soils. 415 
devoted and highly accomplished naturalist, Mr. Rootsey of 
Bristol, I traversed a considerable portion of this district, and 
was agreeably surprised to meet so many of my old acquaint- 
ance of Orme’s Head. The spiked speedwell and dr opwort 
meadow-sweet waved on the downs as on the mountain pas- 
tures of Bodscallon; the broom rape and bloody crane’s-bill 
sought here also the ledges of the cliff; from the crevices 
depended the Aira Theophrast:, the yew, the ash, and the 
hawthorn; and the brushwood below was wreathed with the 
same pretty red convolvulus (C. arvénsis) which made the 
corn fields of Llandudno so “ unprofitably gay.” In short, the 
whole aspect of the place was so much the same, as to appear 
a portion of Caernarvonshire suddenly detached from its 
moorings, and transported 120 miles across the country ; 
and the catalogue which I had drawn up from a botanical in- 
vestigation of that, two years before, might have equally served 
as a Flora for St. Vincent’s Rock. One prevailing exception 
is the samphire of Orme’s Head, which is not a tenant of inland 
rocks, nor grows on any but the stormiest side of those on 
which it is found, exposed to the jarring winds and dashing 
spray. While, on the other hand, the Convallaria majalis 
and C. Polygénatum, and the luxuriant Galium Molligo, are 
more suited to the rich woody and sheltered soil of Lee Wood, 
and the soft inland breezes of Somersetshire, than the biting 
air and exposed surface of Caernarvonshire, where they do 
not spring. 
The basaltic ranges claim certain species, which, if not pe- 
culiar to them, are at least most luxuriant when they are 
grown upon whinstone soil. The native Gerania I have always 
found thriving best in such districts. Geranium sanguineum 
(blood-red crane’s-bill), the most elegant of the genus, is richer 
in its tints, and stronger in its stem, near Edinburgh, and on 
the Carrick Shore of Ayrshire, than anywhere else through- 
out the whole range of my botanical excursions. On moun- 
tain-lime it is slender and straggling ; on the basaltic ledges of 
Salisbury Crags, and beneath “the. © scaurs” of’ the Ayrshire 
whin, it exhibits the same dense bed of flower, with a thick- 
ness of stem, a compactness of leaf, and a hairiness of clothing 
so different, as almost to mark it out as specifically different 
from the G. sanguineum of North Wales and its lakes. The 
Geranium sanguineum of Carrick extends nearly a mile along 
the shore, in one continued tract of beauty, exhibiting a luxu- 
riance superior to that of any other flower of distinguished 
loveliness which our island produces. 
Geranium Robertidnum (herb Robert), so common every 
where, is more luxuriant in the same districts than any other. 
EE 4 
